Welcome To My Garden Blog…

Working in the garden, looking and admiring nature, watching how organisms interact all feed my inner being. Getting my hands into the soil connects me with the earth.

This is probably why I am so drawn to work in clay (porcelain and other earth clays).

Here in my Mid-Atlantic, US garden, which is considered Hardiness Zone 7A by the USDA, Spring is here and will soon be coming to a close.

I have cleared most of the Coneflowers and Black Eyed Susans that had Aster yellows and am keeping a close eye for other plants showing symptoms this year.

I am delighted to say that I am again, falling in love with my garden. 2011 growing season stuck a fork right through my heart, and I am happy it is now in the past and nature is taking her turn at moving things forward into the 2012 growing season...

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Garden Help Please!!!

Right now my main hill garden looks like this:

Very overgrown and a bit unkept.

I blame the peak summer heat and humidity…

And wanting to stay in the air conditioning.
Perfect time to refocus on my business too (I've got to have an income right?)

Things seemed to be doing great in May and June...

This is a bed I that I had planted last year with a bunch of divided cone flowers…

Especially when I look back and see what our house looked like when we first moved in:

All of this was to be ripped out...

I could see bits of a stone face on the house (love stone)...

The hill in between us and the neighbors was completely overgrown and you would slip and tumble down it if you tried to go through the overgrowth (which was filled with poison ivy).

The top of the driveway...

The future main side hill garden...

Hard to believe this is what it looked like in 2005 when we moved in.

I saw potential there…

Hard to believe this is that same "main side hill garden".

The one in the very first photo up top, just after being cleared of trees.

I made Dave take a photo of me in the garden once the retaining walls were installed and I first started to put some plants in...

I cut in the walking path steps.

Eventually removed this walkway when we replaced the driveway…

Used the leftover wall pavers to create some smaller beds and installed a flagstone patio...

Saying we had water issues (the house is mid-way down a hill) just barely touches the surface.

This is my dad - up visiting us from Florida...

The very man that instilled my sense of "if you are going to do something, do it right".

We fixed the grade and drainage, replaced a basement well window with block, resealed the basement wall, and that was just over a long weekend…

Then a few years later, after removing an old nasty cracked concrete slab patio out back...

Drainage issues arose again. The contractors messed with the drainage that we worked so hard to fix, and installed a pop-up drain right at the property line in the line of the natural swale. In addition, the new neighbors had thankfully removed some huge White Pines that were planted 20+ years ago, way too close to our house causing roof mold & mildew issues in addition to costing $500 every 3-4 years to cut back. So the combination caused a small river to form and wash away soil and sediment into their driveway.

We had to route the drainage to the curb. Not my first choice, but there was nothing else to be done with the way the land works.

Now I have these river rocks and a bunch of plants as a start of a rain garden.

Slowly yet surely, we are getting there…

I hope to find peace again out in my overgrown garden.

I think it is time for me to really get the weeds pulled…

Get rid of any infected plants (with Aster Yellows)…

And layout a mostly native plant garden area that has a bit of design to it…

To this end, I wait to hear back from some new MG friends to see if they can come give me a hand with my garden. To help laugh and pull weeds and talk about plants and potential and experience.

To put more memories into this garden with people that will hopefully be around to watch my kids grow up from little kids into adults with gardens of their own.

The thought alone of having friends with me here, makes me want to be out there again for getting my hands dirty.